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Katerina Hakmeh

How to Preserve Food Without Electricity

Amidst the constant power outages, diesel shortage, and the overall disastrous crises we are facing, cases of food poisoning are majorly on the rise.

Learning how to preserve food without refrigeration by learning the basics of canning, drying, and root cellaring is sadly now a basic life skill that every Lebanese must learn. Here are some tips on how you can extend the lifespan of food in your fridge, freezer, or pantry.

1. For food in the fridge/freezer:

Keep your refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible to maintain the cold temperature. If closed, a freezer will keep its temperature for 24 hours.

A refrigerator will also keep food safe and cool for 4 hours without power. Try not to store raw foods, rather cook them and stash them in your fridge and freezer. When cooking foods, be sure to cook them very thoroughly if you have been experiencing outages.

2. Use cans when you can.

You can process nearly anything in glass jars: meat, vegetables, stews, fruit, fish, and desserts, like custard and jelly. Store in a dark, cool place if possible.

3. Ensure proper storage of vegetables.

Trimming, cutting, and drying the unwanted part of the vegetables before storing them is an effective way of extending your vegetables’ life.

4. Immerse what you can in olive oil.

Food is immersed in oil, locking out the air to keep it safe. You can do this to your labne, keshek, loubye, makdous, and the like!

5. Sugaring:

Sugar is a very good preservative for fruits which must be dried up first, rolled, or heated with sugar syrup to form jams and jellies.

6. Vacuum sealing:

Vacuum packaging is a process through which the inside air of the food package is removed before actually sealing the package.

7. Drying:

Dehydrate your food and remove all the moisture which inhibits the growth of yeast bacteria and helps in preserving food. This can involve sunning fruits or vegetables.

8. Salting:

Using salt to preserve meat is a very useful method, as salt prevents bacteria since most microorganisms cannot tolerate a salt concentration of more than 10%. Rub a mixture of salt and sugar into pieces of fresh steak, pack it tightly into a crock, and then store it at a stable, cool temperature.